Nonprofit hopes new report on Oct. 7 sexual violence becomes ‘watershed moment’

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Elkayam-Levy told JNS that evidence in the report “speaks for itself.”

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“Sexual violence in conflict has historically been denied, especially when acknowledging it is politically uncomfortable, but human rights cannot depend on politics,” she said. “The victims of Oct. 7 and those who returned from the hell of captivity deserve the same recognition and protection afforded to victims anywhere else in the world.”

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Suddenly silent

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According to an April 2026 report by Boundless, a U.S.-based think tank focused on Israel and antisemitism, 49% of the U.S. population agreed that Hamas committed acts of sexual violence on Oct. 7 and that there is video and photographic evidence.

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“When women were assaulted, mutilated and murdered by Hamas terrorists, too many voices who claim to champion justice suddenly went silent,” Jayne Zirkle, director of communications at the Lawfare Project, told JNS.

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“Others went even further, mocking survivors, denying evidence and spreading propaganda designed to protect terrorists from accountability,” Zirkle said. “Imagine telling victims of any other mass atrocity that their testimony is politically inconvenient.”

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“The evidence of Hamas’s sexual violence has been documented by eyewitnesses, first responders, forensic teams, released hostages and international investigations,” Zirkle told JNS. Oct. 7 rape deniers are complicit in “the erasure of suffering,” she added.

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“Terror groups thrive when the world rationalizes evil instead of confronting it,” she told JNS. “We must ensure this never happens again by speaking the truth clearly and without apology.”

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Sigal Kraunik, of Kibbutz Be’eri, whose husband Arik was killed by terrorists on Oct. 7, told JNS that “Hamas and the terrorist organizations are busy with propaganda that they are the victim, and the world is buying it.”

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Human rights organizations were notably silent about Hamas’s atrocities, she told JNS.

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“They do not really protect the weak,” she said. “They are a large part of the machine that works to hate Jews and Israel.”

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‘A liar’s a liar’

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Jacqueline Carroll, a former sexual crimes prosecutor in Cook County, Ill., and founder of a consulting firm that focuses on fighting hate, told JNS that she hopes that some of the perpetrators might still be “under the jurisdiction of Israel” so that they can face legal consequences.

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The evidence in the report could also be used for sanctions, reparations and individual cases, including the possibility of American victims suing, she told JNS, before the release of the report.

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Gerard Filitti, senior counsel at the Lawfare Project, told JNS that the report’s findings could form the basis for future prosecutions before the International Criminal Court, an independent judicial body in The Hague, “if its anti-Jewish bias doesn’t get in the way.”

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A view of a house left in ruins after an attack by Hamas militants near the border with Gaza. Photo by Alexi J. Rosenfeld /Getty Images

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The court, which is independent of the United Nations, has accused Israeli leaders of overseeing “genocide” in Gaza and issued arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister and former defense minister. Israel is not a party to the court.

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The report “forces the world to confront Oct. 7 sexual violence as a documented atrocity, not a disputed talking point,” Filitti told JNS, before its release.

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“The world now has to reckon with the legal questions that demand answers and consequences,” he said. “How was it organized, who knew, who participated, who commanded and who facilitated?”

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The commission called for coordinated international investigations and prosecutions and for creating specialized war crime units focused on sexual and gender-based violence.